Research of a full length horror film

Horror films captivate the centre of the dark side of life which includes forbidden, strange and alarming events that cross our paths. Horror film is mainly used to deal and show our most primal nature: fear. Filmmakers do this by using our nightmares, our vulnerability, and our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment or loss of identity.

This type of genre is mainly recognised by the emotional effect it has on the audience. It intends to frighten, shock, disgust and repel the viewer.

People often wonder why others watch these types of films, it is simply because horror gives the audience an opening into that particular scary setting, into an outlet of the essence of fear itself, without actually being in danger. Viewers get a thrill being scared by watching these disturbing images. In an essay from Jeffrey Sconce called the Spectacles of Death: Identification, Reflexivity, and Contemporary Horror a piece from a columnist in Premiere magazine explains two girls discussing which movie monster they would prefer to be killed by, Jason of Friday the 13^th, Michael of Halloween or Freddy of Nightmare on Elm Street one of them make a case against Freddy: One said “Freddy makes you a nervous wreck and then kills you and then turns you into a face sticking out of his chest!”

The other explains that she finds the character amusing, but the other girl makes a very interesting point: “Only because you’re watching the movie, if you were in it and he was chasing you, you wouldn’t be thinking ‘what a funny guy’ you’d be screaming and yelling and trying to get away, just like the kids in the movie”. The point I am trying to make is that people watch Horror films to get the thrill without actually being there.

The Iconography in the horror genre is the settings where the monsters are likely to appear from being it either a: dark, old house, cemeteries, laboratories, suburbs of big cities.

Heavy make up is also used in the iconography in horror to make characters more frightening and disturbing, it is also used for monsters such as vampires, zombies, or werewolves.

Because horror films are able to create its emotional impact with heavy make up use and other low technology special effects the genre is favoured by low budget filmmakers.